anger

The headline in this morning’s Wall Street Journal caught my eye: “We Actually Get Nicer With Age.” Wow! So much for the stereotype of the grumpy old man and the cranky old lady. According to the article, as people get older, they report increases in positive traits such as conscientiousness, agreeableness and emotional stability. What’s more, negative traits – like neuroticism, anger and anxiety – seem to decline. Overall, as we age we become “more responsible, more agreeable and more …

Psychiatrists have long acknowledged that anger and irritability are classic symptoms of major depression in teens and children, but for some reason, prolonged adult crabbiness has been generally ignored. A new study, however, found that depressed adults who are irritable, angry, foul-tempered and hostile are more likely to have “a more chronic and severe long-term course” of major depression than those who don’t acknowledge their cranky, antisocial behavior. Sign up for the AARP Health Newsletter The long-running study of 536 …